Footandahalf of wet, heavy snow on some areas making driving treacherous and crippling air travel. Nearly 800 flights were cancelled and at last count nearly 250,000 customers are without power from West Virginia to maine. Lets get the latest on this from our meteorologist bill karins who is here with what we can expect. Please good news. People in the airports and almost 250,000 people without power on thanksgiving. Thats horrible. Hoping you can go over to some friends houses, stay warm and get a good meal. As far as the storm were almost done. Bangor, maine is one of the last cities getting the snow. We did pick up considerable snow last night. A lot of people waking up that have to clean their car off and shovel the walk and get rid of the big slushy mess at the end of the driveway. The big cities did okay from boston down providence, hartford, new york city, the roads are fine. More just a wet snow. All of the worst of it has definitely shifted up further towards the north. As far as the heaviest snow totals with areas around albany picked up ten inches of snow, binghampton picked up ten inches of snow. Further to the south a little bit less except areas in West Virginia picked up more. If we can go over to our weather one computer. As far as the impacts went further south, philadelphia and d. C. Didnt pick up all that much. They didnt pick up that much in areas around baltimore. Heres some of the historic snowfall totals. Petersburg, West Virginia, 20 inches. And some areas didnt pick up as much like hartford, connecticut. The other story out there i feel bad for the people in minnesota, wisconsin, it is brutally cold. A real chunk of cold air came down, negative 17 wind chills right now all the way down to des moines even ames is in negative wind chill territory. Its a cold region. Thinking of going out there for that afternoon Football Game with the family im not so sure that ball will hurt the fingers when you catch it. 11 in minneapolis, 26 in chicago. Snow flurries to the east but not too bad. Everybody else thats traveling it looks good from the south to the deep south, South Central all the way to the west coast, no problems, just some rain in the northwest. I think the best thing, betty as we took towards the future here, heading towards friday, saturday denver 72, denver 69. By sunday all that warm air makes it across the country. We just had a brutally cold snowy november and start december off nice and toasty. That figures. And getting nicer by the time the weekend is over. Thanks, bill. We appreciate that. Wintry weather may have helped quiet protests last night in ferguson, missouri as a mix of snow and rain fell crowds were much smaller. Two arrests are reported. But in los angeles, Authorities Say at least 130 people were arrested after demonstrators laid down and blocked streets in downtown l. A. In oakland, california, more than 30 protesters were arrested after some demonstrators started moving through the streets vandalizing property, mainly breaking windows. Meanwhile this morning were learning about an alleged plot to bomb the gateway arch in st. Louis and kill the county prosecutor and Ferguson Police chief. Details reported by the st. Louis postdispatch. Amanda, what more can you tell us about this alleged plot . Reporter good morning, betty. Ferguson police chief tom jackson did speak with ron allen and told him this is not the first threat they received before particularly during the heightened august when unrest was at its height but they are saying he did say that he is taking this very seriously, and they are it is the most credible threat they have received. News of this threat comes as weve seen relative calm here in ferguson. Last night there were only two arrests. One was for a felony warrant and one was for failure to disperse. Compare that to the night before when you had 40 arrests and the night before that some 60 arrests. Things are starting to slow down. Were starting to see a slow down in movement. There are a lot of National Guardsmen here on watch to provide support. But it appears people are still taking on to the next movement, next stage of this protest. Theres a small gathering last night at the local mall here and they were just marching throughout the halls as the shops were starting to close. They want to see people boycotting black friday. As you know this is one of the busiest shopping days of the year and they are saying the only way to get peoples attention is really through the power of the purse and so we should expect more of these demonstrations and some might say hurting local businesses is the last thing they should want to do considering that unemployment is so high particularly for africanamerican men. But they are saying they want this to be a very nationwide movement and they are hoping they can galvanize what we saw this week into a national boycott. Well be watching. Thank you. I want to bring in Patricia Bynes for ferguson township. Shes been a regular presence at the protests in ferguson since this summer. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning. Happy thanksgiving. Few. A much quieter thanksgiving there in ferguson. Do you think some of the anger and frustration that erupted into violence in the previous two nights is pretty much quieting down . It seems to be quieting down either that or people are preparing for the holiday. I hope that this type of calm, i hope it is steady and i hope this is not just a break to go back to what it was. Do you know what protest organizers are planning over the thanksgiving holiday . I mean we heard amanda talk a little bit about boycotting black friday. Any other ideas about what may be in the works i dont know whats in the works. Im sure that there are some boycotts planned, but i just want to, you know, make it clear there is a difference between people who are peacefully protesting and those who are choosing to riot. They are not the same. But i support the protests and im interested to see what is planned and organized for over this Holiday Weekend. Thats a very good point. Theres a distinct difference youre right about that. What about the frustration in the africanamerican commune in ferguson have following the grand jurys decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson. What efforts are there now address those frustrations . I think that right now everybody is just trying to stabilize because some of what we saw im not quite sure was that of rioting but seemed to be arsonists who came to just set things on fire weapons the news of browns Fathers Church being set on fire. It doesnt seem anybody angry about the nonindictment would have done that. I know theres some investigating going on behindthescenes but right now i think everybody is just kind of collecting their thoughts, get with their families and trying to see what the next step forward is either whether its protesting or even in the community how to come back from this. The first thing we need is to stabilize. What about legal effort . What do you see happening with the Justice Departments investigation of officer wilson and the ferguson, Missouri Police department . We know theres been an Ongoing Investigation of the Ferguson Police department and in many meetings i had with the department of justice it takes them a while to go through this entire look at the Ferguson Police department. We dont want them to rush anything. They are also look at a federal indictment, a federal case against officer Darren Wilson, so i dont know how long that will take either, justice moves a lot slowly than most people would like but i dont want anyone to rush. I want a thorough investigation. Ferguson Township Democratic Committee woman Patricia Bynes thanks for joining us on this thanksgiving morning. More on the response to the ferguson grand jurys decision a little bit later this hour. Well talk with Missouri State senator whose district includes ferguson. Plus, for every executive action there is a republican reaction. Next week house leadership plans to respond to the president S Immigration announcement. Then black friday sales. A Small Business saturday shopping. Cyber deals. New reason to give on tuesday. Ill explain that when we come back after this break. How could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry in the u. S. . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 70 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Today im taking an action fully within my Legal Authority. The same kind of action taken by democrats and republican president s before me. I know some will call this amnesty. But dont worry theres plenty of turkey to go around. That was president obama having a little political fun during the annual turkey pardon at the white house yesterday. But republicans are taking opposition to the president S Immigration action very seriously. The house gop is planning a closed door meeting Tuesday Morning as soon as they get back from thanksgiving recess to discuss how to respond. Meanwhile politico reports that a tax cut deal was the first major Collateral Damage from the white houseS Immigration action. Add to that pressure to pick a new secretary of defense, all this amid a high stakes battle to destroy isis, and its fair to say this president has a lot on his plate this thanksgiving. Nbcs Peter Alexander joins me now from the white house. Peter, the president gets a brief break for thanksgiving but what are his Top Priorities once he finishes that pumpkin pie, if you will. Happy thanksgiving to you. For the obama family, for the president himself its not just turkey and stuffing on his table but other decisions hell face. On the top of immigration, statistics show nine in ten latinos support the president s decision to defer deportations for up to 5 million illegal immigrants. The real question is what republicans will do. Congress returning on monday. Ten days after that that the funding bill basically needs to be pass sod we can dont pay for the government. The republican, the gop house strategy appearing they want to avoid a government shutdown, they would fund the government through september of next year, but in terms of Immigration Enforcement they will pursue that on a more short term basis. Its a significant effort to balance the constituencies within the Republican Party, particularly the conservatives that are very upset with the president and hiS Immigration policy going forward. You mentioned the pentagon, the open seat at the table there right now with chuck hagel just leaving, resigning a matter of days ago. Over the course of the last several days the names weve been hearing is ashton carter, former under secretary of defense as well as an individual who you are familiar with, jeh johnson from the department of homeland security. Top lawyer at the pentagon during the president s first term helped spearhead the dontask, donttell policy in terms of gays in the military. Hes a significant name to keep an eye on. He was very involved in crafting the immigration policy which may be a good thing for the administration but not such a good thing in the eyes of republicans. Peter alexander, thank you and happy thanksgiving to you as well. Lets bring in our political panel. With us from washington, lee munsell and darrick banks. Two big names have already taken themselves off the table for defense nomination. How tough is it going to be to fill this key post . We heard some names just now from Peter Alexander. Well, exactly. Not necessarily as wide of a field as we had even a couple of days ago, names started to be floated on monday when chuck hagel stepped down and two very quickly shut down rumors they could be considered. At this point as Peter Alexander mentioned, jeh johnson is a leading contender. He potentially at this point is on the front of the white houses list and at some point he could be the nominee. He did pass the senate fairly easy for the department of homeland security, but this time around especially if immigration is a factor it may be less easy for him to get through the senate. Der rick, let me bring you in. Not only does the president have to make his pick the nominee has to get through a real grilling led by bone. What is it going to take to get his stamp of approval thats quite right, isnt it . Because democrats currently hold the senate but come january, they are going to have to pick up at least four, possibly five republican votes, depending on what happens in louisiana. So youre going to have to get a nominee here who republicans are on board with. Because you can rely on just democrats any more. So what this is going to mean is at the very least youre going to have confirmation hearings that rehash all of the president s Foreign Policy agenda. Youre going bring in isis. Youre going to bring in syria, libya, possibly benghazi, who knows. Theres going to be a large theres going to be a large focus on pretty much everything thats going on abroad. How important is it that this new pentagon chief really kind of reset the president s Foreign Policy agenda especially as you mentioned facing challenges from isis to ukraine, iran to afghanistan. Well, exactly. One of the thing that we know about chuck hagel is his background was in the senate and in making deals on budget decisions and came into the pentagon shortly after sequestration cuts were on the table and about to go into effect. That was his background. Right now were in a completely Different National security perspective. Right now were facing threats against isil and others and well need someone at this point or the president will want someone who has a bureaucrat ground in dealing with those issues or at least be able to kind of step up to the table and have a voice in those discussions. Weve also talked about working with this white house isnt always easy and especially when were talking about National Security policy, it tends to be insular and has a very close hold on those sorts of decisions and so if someone can come to the pentagon and really have a voice in those discussions they might make more of an impact than chuck hagel did. Lets talk about immigration because senators like ted cruz have called to oppose all of the president s nominations, the house will meet next week to plot their opposition. Where is this headed after the break . Thats a very good question. One of the biggest things that we got see is what republicans will do. Are they going to do just in opposition or are they going to do something affirmative. Weve seen some Big Questions about what the government funding bill might look like. Remember by december 11th theres a key decision, how does the government keep the lights on and theres been talk about putting out this thing that is some call a cronnibus. This is the big buzz word. It basically would be a bill that would Fund Everything except for immigration and the white house was quick to shoot that idea down. The republicans said they dont want thiS Immigration thing to go unanswered. The big question what will they do at that moment because theres some opposition coming very strongly very quickly. All right. Politicos lee munsell and derek wallbank. A tragic loss in the sports world. An australian cricket player Philip Hughes died today two days after he was struck on the head by a cricket ball. He never regained consciousness and was in an induced coma after undergoing emergency surgery. The teams doctor said hughes was surrounded by his family and Close Friends when he passed away. When we come back were less than two hours away from the start of this years macys thanksgiving day parade. First, forgetting to feed the meter may actually help feed the hungry. One city is using a park being ticket to happy good cause this season. Well tell you where and explain how it works after the break. You probably know xerox as the company thats all about printing. But did you know we also support hospitals using Electronic Health records for more than 30 million patients . Or that our Software Helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure email every month . Or how about processing nearly 5 billion in electronic toll payments a year . In fact, todays xerox is working in surprising ways to help companies simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. 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